As the World Baseball Classic moves to the semifinals following Team USA's stirring victory over the Dominican Republic Saturday, I feel that with just a little help, there might be a future for the game as a spectator sport in this country.

It was riveting baseball.

From Giancarlo Stanton's homer to Adam Jones' catch to Sam Dyson's plucky relief and Andrew McCutchen's late game-breaking double, it was simply stellar. The whole tournament has been, really. It may be time to realize that there are flaws with the tournament setup and those flaws may always exist, but the tournament is well worth the time.

With that in mind, a few Rangers-related notes from my figurative WBC scorecard:

Housekeeping first: The three Venezuelan team members - Rougned Odor, Robinson Chirinos and Martin Perez - will return to camp on Monday. Adrian Beltre will return either Monday or Tuesday. There are four Rangers heading to the semifinals: Jonathan Lucroy and Sam Dyson (USA), Alex Claudio (Puerto Rico) and Jurickson Profar (Netherlands).

The most dominant team in the WBC to date: The Rangers bullpen. Sam Dyson (USA) and Alex Claudio (Puerto Rico) have combined for 5.2 hitless innings and allowed only one walk. Dyson's outing on Saturday was maybe the biggest of the tournament. He came in after the adrenalin surge of Adam Jones' catch and Robinson Cano's homer to protect a one-run lead. He threw 11 pitches, nine strikes and got five outs, four on ground balls.

Jurickson Profar will get another day or two working with Andruw Jones, who has been the Netherlands outfield instructor. The Rangers have gotten good reports on Profar's center field defense. Don't rule out the possibility that when Profar has an "everyday" position, it might be as this team's center fielder in 2018.

The WBC was cruel to Adrian Beltre, who wanted so badly to play one last time for his country. Beltre went 0 for 4 Saturday and was just 1 for 15 in the tournament. Including his at-bats with the Rangers, he's 1 for 21 this spring.

Martin Perez started twice in the WBC, but it still may not have been a great prep for him. While the other starters are up to 75 pitches, Perez has yet to eclipse 60. He threw 58 pitches on March 11 then was skipped a day and didn't pitch again until Saturday, after Venezuela had already been eliminated, and threw only 49 pitches.

You know the whole country will be talking about the home run Giancarlo Stanton hit Saturday, which really was amazeballs, and the two-run eighth-inning double by Andrew McCutchen that broke the game open, but I guarantee you Rangers manager Jeff Banister is hyped about Jonathan Lucroy executing a hit-and-run that helped lead to the Americans first run.